Kara Swisher · 16:29
Hard and so does smart water. It's vapor distilled, whatever that is, for purity with electrolytes for taste. It's water that keeps us hydrated as we work hard. And look, you work hard. You deserve a great tasting hydrating water. Learn more at smartwater.com. We're back with Scott Galloway. He is having... Has just alienated an enormous segment of people I live next to in San Francisco, but, via his yoga attacks. But, but let's talk about wins and fails this week. My win for this week is Times person of the year, Maria Ressa. She's a Filipina journalist who I interviewed a few weeks ago on Recode Decode. Let's take a listen.
Guest · 17:12
When your rights are being taken away from you, we want to alert you to that. That's what our journalism is showing. Mhmm. We showed them in the... Using data, we showed them that they were being manipulated, and it... Yet it took another year before people really understood what that meant. Mhmm. I think this is alright. Let me pull back. The cool thing about all of this is that we're going to... We're redefining and redesigning the world. Mhmm. Right? I just don't wanna be the person that gets jailed because we're trying to redefine what journalism is like in my country. Right. But that's extremely exciting. And I think that, you know, with with leaders like Trump, like Duterte, appealing to the worst of human nature, and then the social media platforms allowing that, allowing exponential lies to be used against truth tellers Mhmm. To the point that we have no facts to begin any discussion with.
Kara Swisher · 18:04
So this interview was amazing. I actually asked her not to go back to The Philippines, and, of course, she was arrested when she got back. DeHarte, he... He's just out to get her. She's doing all these, she's part of a group called Rappler, and they're doing some astonishing journalism there and, pointing out the extrajudicial killings and all kinds of things. And I was really, she deserves so much, of the credit for, you know, not allowing these these these lies and the use of social media. We talked a lot about that, and abuse and just standing up to it. And I was... I think she is just the win of my... Of the year, really, in lots of ways, and and and journalists like her. And so I was really pleased that she was put on the cover of Time Magazine. I'm not so pleased she was arrested in The Philippines for... They've they've ginned up some ridiculous act... Series of accusations against her. So that is my win, Scott, in a very nice, good person who doesn't who who makes me feel better about this world.
Scott Galloway · 18:57
Can I take the other side of this?
Kara Swisher · 18:59
Well, no. Don't be anti Maria Russell. I'll have
Scott Galloway · 19:01
to take this one. Me let be clear. I think anything that extends a news cycle around around her or Khashoggi, I think is a good thing. Yeah. But should journalists be giving other journalists awards? Yes. Okay.
Kara Swisher · 19:14
This case, yes. This case, yes. Because because this is an unusual case. I agree with you. I don't go to those journalism things, and you will never find me at them, and I hate them. But I... We're... You know, I I don't like the ask. Like, all of those awards up for awards up awards thing, don't know them so much. But in this case, the attacks on the press across the globe, including here in this country, demand that we we make this an important thing. And I... It's... You shouldn't, like, over index on how great we are, but she happens to be great. And so is... You know, and the and the dismemberment of a journalist should be noted.
Scott Galloway · 19:44
Think 100%. 100%.
Kara Swisher · 19:46
And and the people at the Capital Gazette and stuff like that. So in this case, yes, I would say because of the continual attacks on the press, especially by president Trump.
Scott Galloway · 19:53
And what about basic Anyway. Grammar? Should at some point they change it to times, movement, or theme of the year? I mean, when are they gonna actually limit it to a person? I mean, it's
Kara Swisher · 20:02
I don't know.
Scott Galloway · 20:02
Computer of the year. It's always these movements.
Kara Swisher · 20:04
Years ago.
Scott Galloway · 20:05
Yeah. Pick an... Pick... You know, go back and pick a person.
Kara Swisher · 20:09
Thing of the... Oh, person. Yeah. Well, who would you be your person of the year then?
Scott Galloway · 20:12
Well, I made a prediction, and I got it wrong. Think that's why I'm angry about this.
Kara Swisher · 20:15
Which was it? I forgot.
Scott Galloway · 20:16
I thought it was gonna be lieutenant first class Robert Mueller. I thought he was gonna be a times per
Kara Swisher · 20:22
seer here. Interesting.
Scott Galloway · 20:23
And, actually, I think he is. I think... Yeah. That's right. Okay. I'll extend it a year.
Kara Swisher · 20:27
Maybe next year.
Scott Galloway · 20:28
By the way, it's still going. Time magazine. Like Yeah. You know, I really want Time Magazine for Christmas. Said no one ever. I mean, literally, Time Time has become... I I think Benioff, I listened to him speak the other way... The other day last week. He's the real deal. It's why
Kara Swisher · 20:43
He is.
Scott Galloway · 20:43
Why I shouldn't go. I shouldn't meet people because I like them. And I've probably never seen anything around Salesforce. I get the sense he's very genuine.
Kara Swisher · 20:51
He's fun. He's fun. He's a fun guy.
Scott Galloway · 20:53
Yeah. But he also... He seems generally concerned and wants
Kara Swisher · 20:57
to you know,
Scott Galloway · 20:58
help stuff out and is willing to sacrifice I know.
Guest · 21:01
A lot
Scott Galloway · 21:01
for it. But time, it's gonna be just so interesting to see if they're able to do anything.
Kara Swisher · 21:05
I think you can do anything with anything. I think you're wrong. I think you can take anybody doctor Seuss movie? We could do anything with anything. Anyway, what's your fail?
Scott Galloway · 21:14
You know what? Know this is one thing. It's darkest before it's pitch black.
Kara Swisher · 21:19
Okay. Alright. The dark is afraid of me. I can go toe to toe with you on these things. Alright. So fail. Fail. Fail. We got time constraints here, Scott. We wanna Fail? Be tight for the people. Fail.
Scott Galloway · 21:29
Oh, god. I mean, my fail was Dorsey. I just thought I just thought that was ridiculous. I love those tweets. Just thought they were... I don't know. It just makes me happy thinking about what an asshole this guy is.
Kara Swisher · 21:40
And Okay. Alright. Okay. And then alright. I was gonna say Verizon regrets buying wait. That's a better. I'm sorry.
Scott Galloway · 21:45
And I and I called someone
Kara Swisher · 21:46
and asked what you upon it. They took a They write decided all this Michigan guys that went on about buying and selling and buying and selling of AOL Yahoo, everything is just, sorry. You know, swipe left or whatever the way you're supposed to swipe.
Scott Galloway · 21:59
Well, that's... It's so... That that's interesting. Right? Verizon, the new CEO is a handset guy, and I I...
Kara Swisher · 22:05
This is Hans Vesberg. I like him.
Scott Galloway · 22:07
That I thought they were gonna spin it again. I think... So you... You're probably gonna see a Yahoo AOL spin. They're probably gonna just spin it out. The whole content distribution... By the way, you know what the next right down to come? It's gonna be AT and T's right down to Time Warner. Think Jeffrey I think Jeffrey Bucas is this... One of the smartest people to ever be in the media business and the reason he sold it. He sold it at the top. Yep. They overpaid for it and they're gonna endure a ride. I mean, it's it's great a content as it is. They just... AT and T overpaid for it. This whole notion of this strategy of we wanna be number three. Sorry. Number three is Amazon. There's Google, there's Facebook, and now Amazon Media Group, which by the way in three years is gonna be the third largest media company in the world, which no one was no one was expecting or saw coming. But Verizon, AOL, Bomb, AOL, Time Warner. Did you see what the AOL... The new guy head of content for AOL said about HBO?
Kara Swisher · 22:56
What... I'm sorry. What'd say?
Scott Galloway · 22:58
The new head... The the guys... This guy Stamke came out and said that we need to scale Netflix, which to me is like walking into the Louvre and say, hey. We need to scale this. I mean, it just the thing that's wonderful about HBO
Kara Swisher · 23:08
You mentioned Flatler. What do think Plepler did? Do you think Plepler went into his office and, threw things? This is Richard Cutler who runs HBO, who's fantastic. He's a fantastic personality and media executive. What do think she's doing right now?
Scott Galloway · 23:20
I'm actually supposed to have lunch with him, which is more name dropping. I don't know about you,
Kara Swisher · 23:24
but Can I come? Lost you a drop in.
Scott Galloway · 23:26
I literally, from the age of 34 to, like, 48, I lost the capacity to cry, which is more information you wanted. The only time I started crying again was under the influence of media, specifically HBO. I think that organization has just captured this unbelievable ability to attract and retain the best talent and create some of the most moving content that... I think TV is our golden age and HBO is the ground zero for that. And for AT and T, for some Yahoo to come in... By the way, John Stamke is a Bruin, so it can't be all bad.
Kara Swisher · 23:57
Stanky.
Scott Galloway · 23:57
But for
Kara Swisher · 23:57
him Stanky.
Scott Galloway · 23:58
I'm sorry. It's really tall. To HBO and say we need to figure out a way to scale this. It's literally criminal. They they do such an unbelievable job. HBO should be the bait or the target to buy an AT and T contract, but I am... HBO for me has just been an incredibly important organization that creates
Kara Swisher · 24:18
The last plebler is gonna stay. That's what
Scott Galloway · 24:19
I So my winner... I'm sorry. My winner is HBO.
Kara Swisher · 24:22
HBO. Alright. Okay. Alright. And the and the loser is Verizon writing these down. What happens to these companies? Do they just go?
Scott Galloway · 24:27
They just go. Right? Investment bankers go what? They get spun. And they bring back the most they bring back the most underrated Google executive, Tim Armstrong. Mhmm.
Kara Swisher · 24:35
Oh, well, he already created this mess.
Scott Galloway · 24:38
No. He's the one that saved AOL and then got it sold at a high price. I think he did a great job.
Kara Swisher · 24:43
He No. He did. Then he did the Yahoo thing. He should not have done the Yahoo thing.
Scott Galloway · 24:47
I told him that when he He turned chicken shit and turned it into chicken salad. AOL was sort
Kara Swisher · 24:51
of Yeah. He left.
Scott Galloway · 24:54
Well, he
Kara Swisher · 24:54
got He sold it off to a bigger sucker. That's really what you're saying.
Scott Galloway · 24:57
Which is what you're supposed to do as a CEO. Great for shareholders.
Kara Swisher · 25:00
Alright. He's gonna take
Scott Galloway · 25:01
it back. Anyways, I think
Kara Swisher · 25:02
this guy would go to grid. Reach. He he shouldn't have done the Yahoo reach. That was the reach too far.
Scott Galloway · 25:07
Come on. Yahoo's made so much bigger mistakes than that. Worst acquisition of tech the last ten years. What is it, Kara? Jeopardy. Business tech. Worst acquisition in the last ten years. It involves Yahoo.
Kara Swisher · 25:17
There's so many. Okay. Yahoo buying what? I don't know.
Scott Galloway · 25:20
Tumblr.
Kara Swisher · 25:21
Tell me. Tumblr. Oh, yeah.
Scott Galloway · 25:23
In the same quarter that Instagram was purchased for the same amount. Okay. Instagram for 1,000,000,000, Tumblr for 1.1.
Kara Swisher · 25:28
Broke that story. Kara Swisher did. Yes.
Scott Galloway · 25:30
She did. And by the and by the way
Kara Swisher · 25:31
I forgot.
Scott Galloway · 25:32
Tumblr has just announced they're getting rid of all porn, which makes Tumblr totally irrelevant. Yep. Totally irrelevant. Jessica Why would anyone go to Tumblr or
Kara Swisher · 25:40
who used to work at Google wrote a great piece on that this week. Why? This... She did. She wrote... Why? Yes. Exactly.
Scott Galloway · 25:45
Anyways I got it.
— Predictions segment begins —
Kara Swisher · 25:46
I think they're gone, gone, gone. Gone. Alright. Predictions. Scott, predictions. I need a prediction from you.
Scott Galloway · 25:51
Well, I already made it. I think the next big write down is gonna be in twelve months. AT and T is gonna write down Time Warner's. Everyone realizes this handset and content peanut butter and chocolate combination was just a big thud.
Kara Swisher · 26:04
And then what? I think they can spin them off.
Scott Galloway · 26:07
They spin them out again. Really?
Kara Swisher · 26:09
These are great companies. Great cultures. And
Scott Galloway · 26:11
then there's a handset culture.
Kara Swisher · 26:14
And so then they're just like small media companies, essentially. There's a series of small media companies.
Scott Galloway · 26:19
I don't think they'll be broken up like that. Time Warner is an incredible... I mean there's some incredible assets. HBO could trade an unbelievable valuation on its own I think. It'd probably be acquired again by somebody. But I don't know what it'll look like, but I think they're... I still think... So let me be clear from a consumer level. I love Yahoo. Yahoo Finance is still my home page. I still use it. I know it sounds... It's it's like bragging you have a discovered There's
Kara Swisher · 26:38
value there. There's value there, Scott. That's what you're saying.
Scott Galloway · 26:41
Yeah. I do. I think there's value, I think they have some pretty good people. I think they did a good job, and I think it's stuck in this ridiculous strategy of of trying to figure out a way to differentiate handsets. Just it never made any sense to me.
Kara Swisher · 26:52
Doesn't make any sense to you. They spend a of money with these guys.
Scott Galloway · 26:55
What are those...
Kara Swisher · 26:55
What do the handset people do? Does it then... Do then the Internet people become the ones that do this buying? It seems to me the Internet makes more sense, Internet people buying these companies.
Scott Galloway · 27:04
So what's your prediction? What what would happen? Play this out. I've got... I've... You know, I've got through.
Kara Swisher · 27:08
You know, it gets bought... These content companies get bought by Internet companies.
Scott Galloway · 27:12
Yeah. They're
Kara Swisher · 27:13
they're gonna have trouble.
Scott Galloway · 27:14
Yeah. But they're gonna have trouble buying stuff because Vanity Trust. I think I think these guys are all stuff.
Kara Swisher · 27:19
You're right.
Scott Galloway · 27:20
I think they're all scared.
Kara Swisher · 27:22
We've gotta have the next big innovation. That's what we need. That's my theme for this year. Last year was tech responsibility and what, yam yams these people were. They're not taking responsibility. The next big
Scott Galloway · 27:31
innovation, Kara. It's already here.
Kara Swisher · 27:33
What? What is it?
Scott Galloway · 27:34
Well, there's good news and bad news. It's already here. The problem is it's owned by Amazon. The next big innovation of technology is voice.
— Predictions segment ends —
Kara Swisher · 27:41
Well, that's what you think. I'm just wondering what it is. It could be voice. It could be a lot of things. What is the next speaker? Loser of the week?
Scott Galloway · 27:47
I just thought of Okay. Yeah. Go ahead. The announcement that Cheddar's gonna be the first business television to be live streamed virtually on the Magic Leap headset. Talk about shavings and shit on a shit salad. Seriously. Seriously. Cheddar is now on magically virtual reality. Okay. So I can see a a reheated story, CNBC about millennials with a Dunkin' Donuts cup in virtual reality. I mean, what are these people doing, Kara? What are these people doing? It makes me wanna go to Chipotle.
Kara Swisher · 28:16
Mike is gone. Mike is gone now. Right? Oh god. God.
Scott Galloway · 28:21
Ridiculous. Ridiculous.
Kara Swisher · 28:23
Ridiculous. Scott, honestly.
Scott Galloway · 28:26
You're coming to New York, Kara. I gotta think about
Kara Swisher · 28:28
New York next week. I will bring the bagels. I will be there. We're gonna have a great time in New
Scott Galloway · 28:33
York. Wait.
Kara Swisher · 28:34
What are we doing? Where are we going? What are we gonna do?
Scott Galloway · 28:37
I'm gonna take you to one of my two favorite restaurants. I'm gonna either take you to Cafe Select in the Village or we're gonna go to this hip
Kara Swisher · 28:45
down to some millennial
Scott Galloway · 28:46
place called La Skeno or maybe Charlie Parker's which is more kind of your vibe because it's fabulous and people recognize it. Oh, Carrie, you're the greatest. Oh my god. Not New York.
Kara Swisher · 28:56
I... We will go. We will have a social time. I'll bring a date. It'll be great. It'll be fantastic.
Scott Galloway · 29:00
Oh my god. You're bringing a date?
Kara Swisher · 29:02
I have a date.
Scott Galloway · 29:03
Bet. Are you dating someone young and hot? Is that why you've been in such a good mood? You're glowing. You're glowing.
Kara Swisher · 29:09
You know what? You're dating someone young and hot. Right? Oh my gosh. Like, I'm Okay. Care. Very nice young woman. I'm not a young woman. Thank you. It's lovely. Very smart. Smart. We we don't... Like, smart and interesting. Like, well, let's focus on that, like, their their their value as a person. It's like, it's like Nancy Pelosi's coat. It's like Nancy Pelosi's coat. Like everyone's focusing on her coat and her glasses and not the fact that Oh, she's a wow.
Scott Galloway · 29:32
I thought she was awesome in that meeting with That's
Kara Swisher · 29:34
what she thinks. Everyone's literally in her coat. It's like focusing on hot women. It's like that's not what you focus on. She focused on the fact that she's the third in line to run this country, and she handed Trump his head in the meeting as a person, not as a woman in a coat. Just saying.
Scott Galloway · 29:48
No, agree. No, there was a there was a man in that room. She was wearing a dress.
Kara Swisher · 29:52
Yeah. Yeah. You're Slip that right over the way out. And scene. And scene. All feminists, please, please, definitely email me, and I will hit him on the head.
Scott Galloway · 30:02
Thank yoga
Kara Swisher · 30:03
or really into the doll. Yes. Goodbye.
Scott Galloway · 30:06
Alright.
Kara Swisher · 30:07
Thanks, Sarah. Rebecca Sinha has produces his show. Nishat Kurwa is Vox's executive producer of audio. Thanks also to Eric Johnson, who I forgot to invite to our holiday party last week. Sorry, Eric.
Scott Galloway · 30:19
It's it's funny you find it that funny. But I so watching it play out on Instagram and not
Kara Swisher · 30:24
contemplating suicide. Was like, where are you?
Scott Galloway · 30:26
Back to big tech.
Kara Swisher · 30:28
No. Anyway, thanks for listening to Pivot from Vox Media. Join us next week for more breakdown, all things tech and business. If you like what you heard, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts wherever you're listening.
Scott Galloway · 30:37
I was watching Wreck Ralph two, and I got I got out the movie, and Kara texted... I saw a text from Kara, where are you?
Kara Swisher · 30:43
Why were you at Wreck It Ralph two? I don't even wanna go into that. Anyway, thank you, everyone. Bye, Scott. I'll see you next week.
Scott Galloway · 30:48
Thanks, everybody.
Kara Swisher · 31:03
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